“Spacing” – Contact Improvisation and Contemporary Dance Camp

Spacing – Creating Space for Welcoming the New Experience

Contact Improvisation and Contemporary Dance Camp

Camino Art House, Gran Canaria, Spain

9-14 November 2024

What is between letting go and reception? Between freeing up and allowing in? Between breathing out and breathing in?

There must be a beautiful inner space, that we need to create, discover or find right after releasing something to be able to be ready to intake. We cannot welcome anything until we have the space for it. This space can be created again and again.

Looking for the Inner Space can be hard, even scary sometimes. What can you do with an empty space? How long can you sit with it, hold it, or protect it? What is there for you? Are you able to let go? Are you ready to receive?

During this dance camp we will discover how to find this space. Starting with letting things go that are not supporting us anymore, we will practice the action of “spacing” and learn how to allow ourselves to take in what is offered to us. Dancing is a powerful tool to discover such mysteries things, and to embody feelings through movement, action and connection.

On this journey we will have two talented facilitators with us: Timi will lead us through contact dance and improvisation, and Viki will be helping us through a more structured and technical way through contemporary dance. The balance of the two aspects will lead us to a beautiful journey. The camp is a safe place, and we are holding the space for each other so you can learn and experience whatever is there for you to learn and experience.

Welcome to our yearly contact improvisation and contemporary dance camp at Camino Art House. On these days you will be focusing on your movements, and the connection between your body, mind and soul, in a conversation with others and your instructors.

When: 9-14 November 2024

Level and experience needed: the camp is suitable for totally beginners to advanced level movement lovers. You don’t need to be a dancer or have any experience in dancing to attend the program. Our aim is to help you to learn the wonderful connection with your feelings, mind and movements. In this way this is not only a dance camp, but a complex self-discovery camp.

What you will experience:
Daily theme classes in contact improvisation and contemporary dance style
Exciting trips and dancing in nature
Liberation of your energies, movements
Connection to yourself and others around you
Inspiring environment of Camino Art House

Experiencing real room dance class

Opening up for dancing with others in one open workshop in Las Palmas
Healthy nourishing vegan food

What you will learn:
Self-confidence, freedom, balance, to play, to stand up when you fall, connect with others, the nature of your body, how to motivate yourself, how to find inspiration, how to let go, how to make space for new experiences

What you will unlearn:
Self-doubt, fear of unknow, sense of confinement, stiffness, feeling stuck, insensibility

What is contact improvisation?
Contact Improvisation (CI) is a dance form, originated by American choreographer Steve Paxton in 1972, based on the communication between two or more moving bodies that are in physical contact and their combined relationship to the physical laws that govern their motion—gravity, momentum, inertia.
The body, in order to open to these sensations, must learn to release excess muscular tension and abandon a certain quality of willfulness to experience the natural flow of movement. Practice includes rolling, falling, being upside down, following a physical point of contact, supporting and giving weight to a partner.
Contact improvisations are spontaneous physical dialogues that range from stillness to highly energetic exchanges. Alertness is developed in order to work in an energetic state of physical disorientation, trusting in one’s basic survival instincts. It is a free play with balance, self-correcting the wrong moves and reinforcing the right ones, bringing forth a physical/emotional truth about a shared moment of movement that leaves the participants informed, centered, and enlivened. — Nancy Stark Smith

What is contemporary dance?

Contemporary dance is a style of interpretive dance that embraces innovation, blending techniques from various genres, including classical ballet, jazz, modern dance, and lyrical dance. It focuses more on floor work over leg work, and isn’t restricted by the rules that govern traditional dance forms. Instead, it relies on improvisation and versatility and is characterized by freedom of movement and fluidity, letting dancers explore the mind-body connection and ideally evoking emotion in the audience. Contemporary dance may communicate abstract ideas, such as ethical values, acceptance of self, and timely social issues. Performers may perform this type of dance to various musical styles, spoken word poems and songs, or silence.

Our facilitators and mentors:

TÍMEA GYÖRKE (hu), dancer, teacher, movement- and dance therapist

She earned her degree in gymnastics training, physical education and physical therapy at the Hungarian University of Physical Education in 1994. During this time, she met modern and contemporary dances and Contact Improvisation. Since 2004 she has been teaching these dance forms for kids-parents (Family Contact – www.kontakttanchaz.wordpress.com), for teens in secondary school and for adults in university.
She was a member of the organizers and teachers’ team of the Hungarian CI Festivals, ECITE and CI events. She travels a lot to teach and to study as well. She collected her experiences as a teacher from Freiburg (CI Fest.), Gottingen (Contact meet Contemporary), Cluj-Napoca (Transcontact Fest.), Budapest (Contact Budapest Fest.), Marburg, Copenhagen…
As the member of Workshop Company and Group Tetra Ether she investigates improvisation and the connection between movement – music- visual arts, organizing Impro Jams, site specific and crossroads performances. www.tetraeter.wordpress.com
With the land artist, Sabine Fazekas she led several workshops in the nature.
From 2021 she became the member of L1 Independent Artists in Public Utility. It is mission to secure professional support for independent Hungarian artists in performing and creative arts.
She is interested in – not just the physical motion, but the soul – the „psyche” of the movement. This was the reason she started her studies in Psychodynamic movement- and dance therapy.

Dance classes:
– will based on modern and contemporary dance techniques
– we use easy acrobatics, CI skills and improvisation as well
– at the end we create small combinations and compositions

Outdoor work:
– we use “land art”, free motion, CI, the nature and each other
– we create bridge between nature and interactive body interventions
– we develop our listening, the awareness; create special connection with ourselves and with the nature around
– reading the landscape and opening our perceptions help us to reconnect to the state of the early age’s global perception (synaesthesia)

The aim is to find the cohesion of the group by creating strong interactions in the nature. Therefore, improvisation and freedom in motion will be encouraged and lead to install a particular communication between us.
This combination is due to reinforce our connection to the nature and integrate deeply the inner and outer experience of being a part of Nature.

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VIKTORIA VARGA (hu), dancer, contemporary dance teacher

Viktória was born on August 19, 1968, in Budapest, Hungary, is a dancer and contemporary dance teacher with extensive training and experience. Her dance education began at Kreativ Movement Studio (1986-1990), followed by studies at Budapest Dance School (1990-1992) and further training at Essen Folkwang Schule in Germany (1992/93). She later completed her BA (2005-2009) and MA (2010-2012) at the Budapest Contemporary Dance Academy.

Varga has participated in workshops such as ImPuls Tanz in Vienna, where she studied contemporary technique under Ted Stoffer, among others. Her involvement in collective dance works includes collaborations with choreographers like Tamás Bakó and Adrienn Hód on productions such as “Code of Line,” “Nest,” and “Concrete Lotus.” She also contributed to projects like “Surface Connection” with LajkaLAB and the 2019 performance “Nibiru,” which involved children.

In her teaching career, Varga has worked at the Budapest Basic Art School, focusing on creative children’s dance, and at the Budapest Contemporary Dance Academy. Since 2014, she has been teaching at the Dózsa György Secondary School in Budapest in the professional dance department. Her work has been supported by various scholarship programs, including the Jardin d’ Europe program, Life Long Burning, and the Erasmus+ program, which have involved international exchanges and workshops.

Dance classes:

Her contemporary technique is a mixture of Limon technique, release technique and floor work.
General structure of classes:
– Different kinds of warm up; which can be slow internal personally focused, or intensive physical training.
-games to develop self-awareness; individually or in groups.
-sequences on basic floor works, no prior experience needed.
-expending on previous exercises through guided visual instruction.
-creating basic choreography using improvisational exercises together with music.
-performing the choreography to each other.
-discussing and sharing personal thoughts and feelings about the class.

Program of “Spacing” Dance Camp

Nov 8 Friday
Arriving, cooking together, introduction, dinner

Nov 9 Saturday
10-13 dance (camino)
15-18 dance (camino)

Nov 10 Sunday
10-13 dance (mogan)
15-18 dance in the dunes (maspalomas)
Sunset and dinner in Tauro

Nov 11 Monday
10-13 dance – Roque nublo (50 min drive, 1h walk to roque)/ dance somewhere on the way
7pm sunset

Nov 12 Tuesday
10-11 dance in room (experiencing real dance floor and difference of closed, indoor environment from outdoor and natural)

11-14 dance in room, open workshop (piknik lunch)

17-20 (Las palmas – las canteras or el confital) dinner in las palmas

Nov 13 Wednesday
10-13 dance (camino)
15-18 dance (camino)
Camp fire

Nov 14 Thursday
10-13 dance (camino)
15-17 dance (camino)
18.00 final show – Let Me Fall Festival opening show

Nov 14 – 17 – Let Me Fall Art and Self-development Festival, Camino Art House

About Camino Art House
Camino Art House opened its doors in 2015. Since than we have offered accommodation and have run different projects with artists. This includes exhibitions, workshops in art, health and lifestyle topics, and many more events. We welcome travellers who are always happy to be involved in our daily life and share their own experiences with us.
We have an old building, which is the central house, and a large land, where the camp will take place. We have caves, meadows, and terraces to use. The house itself will not accommodate all of us, so we will invite you to sleep in the caves or the campsite depending on the number of our group. We will communicate about this in advance after your application.

Accommodation and Food
We offer the following types of accommodation for the camp:
Shared dorm in house // shared dorm in cave // tent with beddings in campsite
For couples: private room in house // private cave room // large tent with beddings in campsite
None of our rooms has private bathroom, we have one main bathroom and a small shower in the house, and 5 dry toilets, and two outdoor showers with cold water in the land. Individuals can occupy private rooms with an extra fee of 15€/night.

We serve only vegan food. You will have breakfast, lunch and dinner and some snack and water during the day.

Contribution fee: 490€ / person / event

Special discount for Hungarians: 440 € / person / event

0. day: dinner+accommodation 40€

Nov 14: dinner+accommodation 40€

The fee includes: accommodation (shared dorm, shared facilities) and food (lunch 9^th nov – lunch 14^th nov – 16 meals, 5 nights), tutorial fee, day trip transportation, dance room rental fee.
The fee does not include the transportation to and from Camino Art House at arrival and when leaving.
We offer 15% discount for Let me Fall Festival entrance fee for Dance Camp attendees if they want to participate in the festival.

How to apply?
When applying we request a 50% payment. Rest of the fee will be paid at the camp at arrival or during the event.
Cancellation: if you cancel we refund 100% of your deposit until 20th October, 50% of your deposit until midnight 1st November. If you cancel after 2nd November we do not refund your deposit.
If you want to join to the camp, please contact us on e-mail or phone.

Bea (Camino Art House) caminoart@caminoart.org, +34633339903 (whatsapp, please always use TEXT, do not call)
Timi timimpro@gmail.com, +36 706277914